By Larry Coffman
Extreme athletes expend extraordinary effort and push the limits to excel in their sport. Josh Dunn exhibits those same traits in excelling as an independent magazine publisher.
Because he keeps a relatively low profile, many may not readily recognize Dunn as the publisher of the now-robust 425 and South Sound magazines and their 425 Business and Sound Sound Biz sister publications, all under the Premier Media Group banner.
The November issue of Dunn’s flagship 425 is a fat 144 pages, compared with the much older Seattle Magazine’s 112-page issue for the same month. And then there’s the bi-monthly South Sound, also at 144 pages. Who said print publications are dying?
Since its inception in 2005 as a quarterly, 425’s ad revenues per issue have grown a remarkable six-fold. Josh admits to “being in the right place at the right time,” as the magazine’s growth mirrored that of Bellevue’s rise as a business and residential powerhouse.
Even more remarkable, Josh has built this media juggernaut without angel investors. His only business (and life) partner is wife, Michelle, the mother of their three children, ages 19,17 and nine. You won’t find Michelle’s name on any of the mastheads, but he credits her with being “a valued advisor and confidant at every step,” as they built their business together.
Lest you think all this success might have gone to his head, it was refreshing to find that Josh asked as many questions of his interviewer (and fellow publisher) as he answered, and he kept notes of his own, as well. So, just who is Josh Dunn, anyway?
Now 45, he grew up in Tacoma, graduated from Tacoma Baptist High School and is an admitted “college dropout,” leaving before the end of his sophomore year at Pierce College in Tacoma—where he’s now on the Board of Directors and has been recognized as one of its Distinguished Alumni.
His “burning desire” to be an entrepreneur, stoked by boyhood paper routes, lawn-mowing businesses and the like, led him to launch his first publication on 9/11/2001—a Wedding & Events magazine for the South Sound. There followed a variety of custom publications in various niches, before he saw the opportunity for an Eastside magazine.
425 debuted as a quarterly in 2005, at which point he put all of the company energy into that magazine and South Sound, which had evolved from the Wedding & Events publication. The original staff of five has ballooned to 50, housed in Tacoma’s Old Town Business District headquarters and an office in Bellevue.Today, one might think that choosing the 425 name was a “no brainer,” since it’s primary distribution is in the 425 Eastside zip-code area. However, Josh says it wasn’t that easy and remembers, clear as day, the morning it came to him in the shower, where he admits to “getting a lot of my best ideas.”
Speaking of extreme, Josh’s weekdays (“weekends are for family”) begin at 4am and includes an hour of basketball and a half-hour of weightlifting (all that exercise shows in his solid 180-pound frame), before arriving in the office at seven. His average day includes anywhere from three to six meetings with staff and clients. The clients are key because, although he has a talented sales staff, he’s always been heavily involved in sales. “Of all my jobs, selling is clearly first and foremost,” he declared.
The exception to his extreme weekday regimen is Wednesday, which he reserves for “personal time” to relax, reload and think. And it’s obvious he’s thinking a lot these days, especially with the strong rumblings about the possibility of a new Eastside daily newspaper, with a strong social-media component, being launched in the coming year.
His thinking also extends to his own business model and the challenges of finding and retaining talent, along with looking for opportunities to expand his stable of publications. He launched 425 Business four years ago and purchased South Sound Biz from Jeff Rounce last year. Both are monthly, as well.
It’s clear that, like the extreme athlete, Josh is looking for many more figurative mountains to climb. And speaking of heights, two years ago he was cleaning the roof of his house when he fell off head-first, striking the concrete patio just above his right eye. Miraculously, he had no broken bones but suffered a severe concussion.
He’s fully recovered now and ready to take the future head-on, keeping all his options open. “Everything we have is for sale at the right price,” Josh said. “And, by the same token, we’re always open to opportunities to expand on our base. It’s an exciting and challenging time for the publishing business, and I wouldn’t want it any other way.”
With all of his business and family responsibilities, Josh still found time to start the annual Tacoma TEDx Conference six years ago. This year’s event is Nov. 16 at Joint Base Lewis-McChord and will involve eight speakers.
Do yourself a favor and check out this short documentary on Josh that was created for the University of Puget Sound Entrepreneurship Film Festival. It’s extremely interesting.